Hi Tom, On May 7, 2004, at 4:10 pm, Tom Vest wrote:

Hi Leo,

I find the information under the individual LIR entries interesting. For example, I looked under CN (China) and found 14 European LIRs. I couldn't find any explanation for the "serviced areas" field in the LIR refbook -- what exactly does it mean? In this particular case, it could not mean that the entities are providing IR services to Chinese operators for local production needs. Nor would it be possible for these entities to provide IR services to non-Chinese operators for local use, with the (still unlikely I think) exception of the LIRs' own internal enterprise networks (e.g., Siemens provisioning its own CN operations). Could they be servicing Chinese network operators seeking to break into Europe? No such operators exist, except perhaps the few telcos that are already APNIC members and handle their own needs.

Maybe the "serviced areas" field is simply one of those questions that means "whatever the applicant thinks it means," i.e., it's technically meaningless (each respondent would have to independently translate it into terms that are meaningful to others)? Some clarification here would be much appreciated!

I agree that those pages are a bit confusing. All the LIRs listed in the page for China are actually based in other countries. They just happen to offer services there. For instance, I believe the people at the Holy See indicate that they provide services (no pun intended) in every country in the world. The "serviced areas" field is drawn from a list of countries supplied by the member. They're asked to indicate the country or countries in which they assign addresses or provide services. However, in most cases, when LIRs operate outside the RIPE NCC service region they aren't providing ISP-type services with address space from our region. They're actually providing other types of products or services. I don't think any particular meaning can be applied to the data on these pages. They probably need a bit of an overhaul, really. Regards, -- leo vegoda Registration Services Manager RIPE NCC